A number of people were taken aback by the announcement this week that five South East Clinical Commissioning Groups were in special measures, and Crawley’s was amongst them.

Of course, this rating doesn’t reflect the quality of the care, only the financial status of the organisation with more being spent on care by the CCG than they were allocated. While I didn’t realise things were quite this bad, to those who had seen its budgetary position from its inception this outcome seemed inevitable in the long-run.

Alan Kennedy is now taking a break from his role as Chair of the CCG and the CCG’s Chief Clinical Director, Dr Amit Bhargava, has resigned. Both are men the town owes considerably, I have never met anyone as passionate about Crawley’s health services as Amit.

While neither career decision is confirmed as being as a result of the assessment, the fact that they were unable to provide the care the town needs within the budget the Government gave them is not the fault of either man. Much like our schools and care homes, it reflects the overall declining picture of our cradle to grave welfare state, a system crumbling under the neglect of a Conservative Government which cares more about low taxes than life saving services. This has got to change of things are ever going to improve.